Important Question

Important Question

My great-grandmother was given by her birth parents to another couple to raise--this was in the 1860s--and there is no birth record/certificate of any kind for my great-grandmother. The only record people use to "prove" her parents in a Census record done when my great-grandmother was around 4 years old, and therefore most people presume incorrectly that the husband and wife with whom she lived were her birth parents. I know for a fact they were not her birth parents. My grandfather knew this, as well, though he is dead. So what he told my mother is part of what I have written into my personal/family genealogical notes. Extensive research on my part has substantiated what my grandfather told my mother about my great-grandmother NOT being the birth child of the man and woman named on that lone Census record.

I do know who my great-grandmother's birth parents were. I know their vital stats, ancestors, why they left her with this couple, etc. What I cannot locate is some official document that "proves" who my great-grandmother's birth parents were.

I have tried every recourse I can up to this point, to no avail, to find or request a document stating who her birth parents really were. Does anyone know how I can have an official document initiated that will state who my great-grandmother's birth parents really were? I know of someone many years ago who was left at an orphan's home after her mother died, because her father could not take care of her, and this girl was given to a foster family. As an adult, she had to provide some information, and she was able to have a birth certificate retroactively made for her--no birth certificate had been created for her at the time of her birth in the very late 19th century. So this has been done. I just don't know what I need to do to retroactively have my great-grandmother's birth "certificate" or record created so that the truth is "official."